“For God is not unjust. He will not forget [overlook] how hard you have worked for Him and how you have shown your love to Him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent [sluggish or lazy]. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance” (Heb. 6:10-12).
Weariness and sluggishness are two great enemies of worship leaders (and any other servants of God). From time to time, we all grow spiritually fatigued. We probably feel overlooked. We might even experience a lack of joy in gathering to worship, and apathy in preparing to lead and serve others.
And yet the Holy Spirit in us inspires us to serve others. It has not always been this way. Remember that while we were still God’s enemies, Christ died to save us from our sin, to know and belong to God. Now saved, we have been made servants of God and one another for the rest of our lives. God’s Word encourages us to fight fatigue and fan into flame a greater passion to persevere in faithful service of our Lord and other believers:
1) Know that God sees your faithful service. Many times, people will overlook your faithful service, but God will not and does not. Satan seeks to keep us from the great joy of knowing God’s favor on our daily activities by lying about the value of our work in God’s sight. He tells us that God doesn’t care about us or our labors of love. Don’t believe the lie that God is not delighted in your faithful service for His sake. Know that our Father can see some beauty in everything you do from a desire to please Him. He doesn’t forget your labor of love for His sake no matter how the world may disregard it. Rejoice and be thankful because God sees, delights in and will reward your faithful service in His name.
2) Value the true marks of faithful service. God doesn’t care most about musical skills or production quality. He values our faithful service exhibited by hard work and earnest love for Him and His people. We should value these things too. Hard work can include sacrifice, practice, punctuality and pursuing excellence in musicianship. And it’s not enough to love to serve if we don’t love those whom we are serving. Do you love those you are serving? Carry people on your heart as you serve by cultivating tenderness and compassion for those you’re leading. Refuse to be discouraged by their lack of response; refuse to be critical and bitter. Seek to help your people sing by valuing the hard work and love you show in serving them.
3) Remember the goal: THAT GOD BE GLORIFIED. We serve others for the fame of God’s name, for the glory of our great God. Our service, then, should be grounded in our greater love for God’s glory. God has also commanded, “If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ” (I Peter 4:11). You serve for God’s glory with the strength God provides. And He never fails to reward His servants to the full extent of His promises.
4) Imitate examples of faithful service. The writer of Hebrews lists a cloud of witnesses, great examples of the faithful for us to follow (Hebrews 11). Most of all, we should seek to imitate Christ. “Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the Champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame” (Heb. 12:1-2). The best thing the weary can do is look to and follow Jesus.
Fellow servants, are you weary? Have you grown sluggish in your service? Do you feel overlooked and forgotten? Do not lose heart. Your Father sees you. He appreciates you. He is pleased with your hard work done with earnest love for His sake. Remember to serve with the strength God provides, so in all things He would be glorified. Look to Jesus, our faithful and perfect Worship Leader who never tires in His service to the saints for the sake of His own name.
This post was inspired by a sermon titled “Faithful to Serve,” recently preached by Jared Mellinger at WorshipGod 2013, a conference hosted by Sovereign Grace Ministries.
